March 2009

03/27/2009

A shoutout is in order for Denise Kelly, the provincial coaching
director for the Ontario Cycling Association, who was honoured as
Ontario's top female coach of 2008 last night at the Ontario Sport
Awards in Toronto.

Kelly has been a coach since the 1980s and last year was assistant
coach for Team Canada at the 2008 PanAm Championships, where Canada won
four golds and a silver. She was head coach at the 2008 Road Nationals,
where Team Ontario won three gold, four silver and two bronze.

03/26/2009

A 16-point guide to cycling in Bangkok called Cyclists Safety Guide is, sadly, too funny for words. I laughed out loud at the link forwarded by cycling comrade Alan Medcalf.

Among the many observations and bits of advice are these:

"If there is a little space, ride in the middle of the road to prevent motorists from doing things that could hurt you." (Sounds like taking the lane, to me) But it goes on to say: "Surely they will be very angry, but they won't run over you." (Unlike around here, apparently).

"...if a fast vehicle approaches, you must move about one meter towards the center of the lane, then quickly come back. The driver will be confused and will either reduce speed or keep a safe distance to you." Try that in this area and see what happens.

I laughed out loud at this one: "Do not indicate a turn by stretching out your arm! Drivers will either hit your arm, or speed up to get past you before you actually turn." It's too true!

The hint "Know your traffic partners" suggests it is better to be hit by a car than a motorbike, since the cyclist will slide up on the hood with little injury. There are tips about where to ride to avoid "lingering taxis," tuk-tuks and angry dogs. And I also liked, "Know a good hospital."

It's a long way in the future, but cyclists could see an improved access to the Long Point area when and if causeway improvements get approved.

The main thrust of the Long Point Causeway Improvement Project is to reduce the animal death along the 3.5 kilometre roadway connecting the Long Point peninsula to the rest of Ontario. Some 10,000 creatures a year (many of them frogs, but the turtle-kill rate is the fifth highest in the world) become road-kill along this narrow separater between the bay and the marsh.

The news for cyclists is that the Norfolk County Lakeshore Special Policy Area Secondary Plan (really, I did not make that up) says that the causeway is the ideal location for a path-trail addition, either separated from the roadway, or immediately adjacent to the west side of the causeway. It can be accommodated by the existing road allowance, so it looks good that this can piggyback on any causeway improvement that is approved.

That would be a huge plus for cycle tourists. Despite the posted limits and warnings about creature crossings, there are a lot of motoring yahoos who roar along that strip, or haul their boats or trailers of water toys. It's as unnerving a ride (in the busy moments) as downtown Toronto. A bike path would make a huge difference.

I said when and "if" because there is a vocal opposition to the plan, from an amalgam of those who fear higher taxes, want to save trees, don't believe the scientists and their kill-rate data, and generally don't want anyone to mess with the way things are now.

You can download the whole causeway plan at the project website, but it's 93 pages with lots of illustrations, so if you don't have high-speed, get a friend to do it.

It's actually not that easy to decide who is the real moron of the following story: the drug- and alcohol-addicted driver who drove the wrong way down a one-street roadway at twice the speed limit and struck a cyclist pulling two kids in a trailer, or is it the judge who decided to sentence the driver to house arrest after buying the guy's story that he is remorseful and really is working to curb his drinking and drug use, or is it the rest of us for putting up with a system that pats motorists on the head and tells them to be better next time after they take up a one-tonne weapon and bludgeon innocent people with it?

That was rhetorical, of course. They are all morons.

You can read the story in the Maple Ridge (B.C.) News, but the briefing summary is pretty much as above. Guilty is Gary Joseph Peters, 24, of Chilliwack, who roared his pickup truck into a campground and totalled the bike and trailer, leaving both kids traumatized and with "ongoing learning difficulties." He got two years of home curfew. The judge was B.C. provincial court Judge Russell McKay, who nixed the Crown's request for two years in jail cuz Peters is remorseful and is working to put drugs and booze behind him.

03/25/2009

If you are feeling like a social ride (hey, it's spring and one's thought turn to bicycles), the KW Critical Mass group is having its March edition ride this Friday at 4:45 p.m.

It's the usual ride, from Waterloo Park to Victoria Park. Starting around 5 p.m. and ending around 6:30 p.m. If you someone you love expects to be in their automobile on King Street between Waterloo and Kitchener at this time, and would be really ticked off to find their speedy passage stopped by a parade of happy but slow cyclists, please advise them to take an alternate route.

The seven-time Tour de France champion will be back on his bike in days even though the bone may take eight to 12 weeks to fully mend. Armstrong must resume training almost immediately if he’s to meet his goal of racing in the Giro d’Italia, which begins May 9. The 37-year-old American cyclist also plans to ride in the Tour de France this July.

Surgeon Doug Elenz inserted a stainless steel plate and 12 screws to stabilize the broken collarbone on today, two days after Armstrong crashed in the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon race in northern Spain. “Lance is going to be a patient who is going to push the envelope,’’ Elenz said. “This first week we’re going to make Lance take it easy ... ask Lance not to do a whole lot.’’

After taking a few days off, Armstrong will be allowed to ride a stationary bike. Then, doctors will monitor his arm strength, range of motion in his shoulder, as well as his pain, to decide what kind of training he can do. Doctors don’t want him to strain his upper body in any way for a while.

Just hours after the surgery, Armstrong was posting to his Twitter feed, reassuring fans. “howdy folks. Made it thru. Took longer than we thought. Playing with my kids right. Making me feel A LOT better,’’ he wrote.

Although doctors initially thought it was a simple fracture, Elenz said X-rays showed it was broken in four pieces. Rating the three-hour surgery on a scale of one to 10, from easiest to most difficult, he called Armstrong’s procedure an 8. “This was a challenge,’’ Elenz said. “It was a hard case.’’

Elenz said the 12 screws were more than he might normally use, but he felt they were needed knowing Armstrong’s goals. The surgery to stabilize the bone required about a 12-centimetre incision and the steel plate measures about the same length, said Elenz, who added it’s likely doctors will someday remove the plate. Armstrong returned to elite cycling this year after a three-year layoff.

During a conference call Tuesday night, he said he was frustrated the injury came just as he was getting into top shape. He was among the Top 10 riders for much of the race Monday before he crashed about 20 kilometres from the end of the stage. Now, he’s determined to get back to the front.

“I think the Giro is still very doable,’’ Armstrong said. “This is definitely a setback, no doubt. It’s the biggest setback I’ve ever had in my cycling career, so it’s a new experience for me.’’

If you are a cyclist who has ever butted heads with a transit driver, you might be interested in this Jeff Outhit story in The Record today.

Longtime cyclist Tyson Reiser had a brush with a Grand River Transit bus on Monday, near the Charles Street terminal. He says that when he caught up to the bus to point out the near-collision to the driver, he was brusquely brushed off, the attitude apparently being that no one was going to listen to his complaint. Fortunately for Reiser, an articulate cycling advocate, some of the passengers filed their own complaints. Reiser called the newspaper, and lo and behold, got some Local front-page publicity.

Eric Gillespie, director of the transit authority, told Outhit that the complaint will be investigated, and that the authority takes such complaints seriously. I'm glad to hear that. I have met some pretty helpful and accommodating transit drivers. I've seen some jerks, too.

If you have something to say about the good ones or the bad ones, you can call Gillespie at 519-585-7597, ext. 7270. You might want to enter this number into your cellphone directory, whether you are a cyclist or a transit user.

03/24/2009

The Astana web site has posted this interview with Lance Armstrong about his fracture and tomorrow's surgery.

When I came to the bit about him sitting in the ditch and thinking, hey, I've had worse health issues than this, I thought, sure, you had time to rationalize, but the bit about him asking himself what the hell he was doing on the ground sounded totally sincere. It's what any of us would think when we have the big bone-crunching crash.

03/23/2009

So, the King of the Tour took a tumble today, and one wonders what this will mean for this year's Tour de France.

Armstrong fell and broke his collarbone during the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon stage race in Spain. According to the Associated Press report from Baltanas, Spain, Armstrong is U.S.-bound for rest and recuperation. Although he is slated to ride in the Giro d'Italia May 9-31 and the Tour July 4-26, the Giro looks dodgy, and the Tour . . . . Well, who knows?

Armstrong is apparently still able to Twitter, and wrote "I'm alive! Broken clavicle (right). Hurts like hell for now. Surgery in a couple of days. Thanks for all the well wishes."

Astana team leader Johan Bruyneel said on his Twitter feed that the break is clean and thinks Armstrong will be back in the saddle soon. This race was Armstrong's first stage race in Europe since leaving the tour in 2005. it's been a bumpy ride.

The bike sharing experiment is like some kind of virus. You're not doing your job as a major municipality if you don't commit to buying a zillion bikes and scattering them around the inner city in the hope that some BMW-driving financial adviser will borrow one.

Oh, wait, the financial advisers are all bumming quarters in front of the Starbucks these days. Of course they will want a free bicycle.

So they will have their chance in Vancouver, which, according to this CTV report, is going to have 3,000 bikes available by the summer of 2010.

You might think that if bike share would succeed anywhere, it would be in Vancouver. I wish them the best of luck.